Iron Psalms (version 2)

Intro

Four a.m. gate, frost still holding on the latch

Furnace waking slow, first spark before the match

Verse

Four a.m. gate creaked, cold before the coal caught flame

Pop pulled the ladle steady, called the furnace by its name

Said the heat don't lie to no man, only tells him what he's worth

Every pour's a sermon written straight into the earth

I was ten, held his lunch pail, watched the sparks like falling stars

Learned the difference between a burn and learning who you are

Slag and cinder on his boots, psalm book stitched in leather skin

He never read a verse aloud, just let the iron sing again

Thirty summers on that floor, never missed a single shift

Said the plate don't care about your feelings, only weight you lift

Watched his knuckles turn to gravel, watched his shoulders learn to bend

Still he'd hum a hymn at quitting time like church was gonna end

Momma kept his timecards folded in a cigar box drawer

Said each one's a chapter in a book without a final score

I inherited the calluses before I earned the name

Learned to read a man by embers, not the words that he became

Chorus

We sing iron psalms, hymns forged in the heat

Every scar's a verse, every callus a repeat

No hymnal but the anvil, no choir but the crew

We sing iron psalms till the iron